Effective immediately, Air Algérie (AH/124) will no longer accept Discover as a form of payment through ARC.
In November 2023, all participating agencies received notification that ARC would be reinstating the Annual Financial Guarantee Review Program in 2024. Effective April 1, 2024, ARC’s Annual Financial Guarantee Review program will be officially reinstated.
This program will introduce modifications aimed at establishing a streamlined timeline for calculating an agency’s required financial instrument amount. Additionally, these updates will incorporate the most precise data regarding an agency's average cash ticket sales activity.
Our ongoing transformation efforts have enabled us to identify and implement process improvements to reduce redundancies and enhance the customer service experience. Through improved automation, you can anticipate receiving timely updates and notifications, reducing the time required to complete your financial instrument update request.
We appreciate your understanding regarding the need to reimplement this program. We highly value our partnership with you and stand ready to assist you throughout this process.
If you have any questions about this change, please don't hesitate to contact our Customer Care team at 855-816-8003 or email us at ccchelp@arccorp.com.
A fraudster continues to send phishing emails to the travel agency community, falsely claiming to be from Sabre. The phishing email entices the recipient to click the green “Sign-In” link and input the user’s GDS login credentials.
Ensure all staff, contractors and outside agents with ticket issuing capability know the phishing emails and the need to safeguard their GDS login credentials.
GDS providers will never ask agents to log into their system through a link in an email.
Always log into your GDS through bookmarks in your browser, not through an email link.
Visit the ARC website for more information on unauthorized ticketing and additional fraud schemes targeting the agency community. Please view our Cybersecurity Guide and on-demand webinars for additional resources.
ARC’s revenue integrity team is here for fraud-related support. If you suspect you have been a victim of fraud, contact ARC immediately by calling 855-358-0393 or emailing stopfraud@arccorp.com. We also offer after-hours and weekend support.
Did you know ARC has enhanced the Interactive Agent Reporting (IAR) system to systematically link a residual value Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD) resulting from a GDS-issued exchange to its associated exchange transaction? This feature will work similarly to the existing auto-linking functionality that links a residual value MCO to its associated exchange transaction.
The automated linking of a GDS-issued residual value EMD to its associated exchange transaction will occur in your IAR sales report when:
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The new 13-digit exchange ticket number is in the “Issued in Connection with Document Number” (ICDN) field of the EMD, and
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One of the following three-character “Reason for Issuance Sub Codes” (RFIS) is used when issuing the EMD:
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99I - Residual Value
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996 - Refundable Balance
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98E - Non-refundable Amount
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As a reminder, a residual value EMD or MCO results when a non-refundable old document has a higher value than that of the new exchange document. When the airline allows this non-refundable residual difference to be transferred to either an MCO or an EMD, IAR will now systematically link that GDS-issued residual value document to its associated exchange transaction in the sales report.
Automated Linking of Residual Value EMDs is an IAR-only feature that works only when a GDS-issued residual value EMD is sent to ARC. Please note: the ICDN and RFIS linking criteria values are not displayed in IAR on the EMD transaction, so it is important that these fields are entered in the GDS at the time the EMD is issued. While these and other EMD-specific data elements are not yet displayed in IAR, ARC does support full EMD settlement.
If the above points linking criteria are not present on the EMD when received from the GDS, you must manually link the EMD to the new exchange. If not linked to the new exchange transaction, your customer could be charged the amount of the EMD instead of having that value to use as a credit for future travel. Please be sure to reconcile your sales report daily to ensure any residual value document is linked to its exchange transaction.
Agency issuance of a residual value EMD is dependent upon the airline’s ticketing policy since not all airlines support agency issuance of EMDs or permit the residual value to be transferred to a new document. Your ability to issue an EMD is also dependent upon your GDS’s ability to support the issuance of a residual value EMD as part of the E-ticket exchange process. Please check with your GDS provider for more information.
Please refer to the Industry Agent’s Handbook (IAH) in Section 5 – IAR under “Exchanges with Non-Refundable Residual Value” for more details.